Metagenomics-Guided Assessment of Water Quality and Predicting Pathogenic Load

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) are becoming more prevalent in the environment and are efficiently disseminating through contaminated wastewater resulting in resistome cycling. This chapter compares the bacterial profile of hospital effluents collected from rural, urban, and delta regions of West Bengal, India. Comparative metagenomics analysis identified pathogenic bacterial genera like pseudomonas, escherichia, staphylococcus, lactobacillus, prevotella, acinetobacter across the samples. Delta sample showed highest abundance of pseudomonas whereas rural sample had lower titre of all the common bacterial genera. Urban sample reflected more diversity of different genera in terms of abundance. Pathogenic load prediction revealed significant occurrence of diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, liver cirrhosis, ulcerative colitis in the disease network. This chapter proposes a monitoring programme for assessing wastewater health using a combination of culture independent and culture-dependent molecular techniques in order to prevent the spread of pollutants in tropical environments.

Soy dairy performance metrics

Soybean (Glycine max (L. Merr.) has been a crop of interest to address both poverty and malnutrition in the developing world because of its high levels of both protein and oil, and its adaptability to grow in tropical environments. Development practitioners and policymakers have long sought value added opportunities for local crops to move communities out of poverty by introducing processing or manufacturing technologies. Soy dairy production technologies sit within this development conceptual model. To the researchers’ knowledge, no research to date measures soy dairy performance, though donors and NGOs have launched hundreds of enterprises over the last 18 years. The lack of firm-level data on operations limits the ability of donors and practitioners to fund and site sustainable dairy businesses. Therefore, the research team developed and implemented a recordkeeping system and training program first, as a 14-month beta test with a network of five dairies in Ghana and Mozambique in 2016-2017. Learning from the initial research then supported a formal research rollout over 18 months with a network of six different dairies in Malawi and key collaboration from USAID’s Agricultural Diversification activity. None of the beta or rollout dairies kept records prior to the intervention. The formal rollout resulted in a unique primary dataset to address the soy dairy performance knowledge gap. The results of analysis show that the dairies, on average, achieve positive operating margins of 61%, yet cannot cover the fixed costs associated with depreciation, amortization of equipment and infrastructure, working capital, marketing and promotion, and regulatory compliance. The enterprises in our sample operate only at 9% of capacity, which limits their ability to cover the normal fixed costs associated with the business. The challenge is not the technology itself, as when operated, it produces a high-quality dairy product. The challenges involve a business that requires too much capital for normal operations relative to a nascent and small addressable market.

Varying Effects of Organic Waste Products on Yields of Market Garden Crops in a 4-Year Field Experiment under Tropical Conditions

Controlling organic and mineral fertilisation is a major concern in tropical environments. An experiment was conducted on an arenosol in the Dakar region, the main market gardening area of Senegal, to evaluate treatments commonly used by farmers. Seven treatments were repeated three times: A mineral fertilisation (MF) treatment based on N-P2O5-K2O (10-10-20), and three organic treatments at two doses (dried sewage sludge (SS), poultry litter (PL) and a digestate from an anaerobic digestion (AD) of cow manures). Each of the organic treatments were supplemented with a normal dose (1) and a double dose (2) of mineral N and K fertiliser. A lettuce, carrot and tomato rotation was grown in four campaigns (2016–2020) on all of the plots. Yields of all three crops in all of the organic treatments were statistically similar (p > 0.05) to the MF in all four campaigns, except for the yield of the lettuce crop under treatment PL-2 in campaigns 2 and 3. The tomato yields were statistically similar under all of the organic treatments in all four campaigns. In contrast, the yields of the lettuce and carrot crops differed statistically from each other and under the different organic treatments in all four campaigns. The yields of all three crops differed in the campaigns with the fertilisation treatment. In each campaign, the yields of each crop were not correlated with the total amounts of N, P and K applied. These differences or similarities in yields are explained by the nature of the organic waste products, the accumulation of nutrients after several applications, the type of crop and interannual differences in temperature.

Natural Products Studies of Marine Organisms of the South Pacific

<p>This thesis describes the NMR-guided isolation and structural elucidation of one novel and several known compounds from marine organisms collected from Tonga and New Zealand. In the process of this work, 11 Tongan algal specimens were subjected to preliminary NMR-guided investigation, as the study of Tongan marine algae is poorly represented. The HMBC spectra of crude fractions generated by the first chromatographic purification of the crude extracts were analysed for perceived structural novelty, providing three specimens that warranted further investigation. Investigation of unknown algae PTN4_17G afforded substructure 76, observed in the known compound avrainvilloside, which included the rare 6-deoxy-6-aminoglucose moiety. This aminoglucose moiety has been reported from marine sources only twice in literature, both in algae specimens. An investigation of unknown brown algae PTN4_18E afforded substructure 83, a methacrylic acid containing moiety. Methacrylic acid moieties are also uncommon in marine organisms, with 27 reported structures containing the moiety, of which only two occur from algae. In each case suitable, mass spectrometry data was not obtainable therefore full structural elucidation of the compounds was not achieved. Further analysis of the unknown algae PTN3_38C afforded the known compound fistularin-3 86, although further studies revealed that a sponge contaminant was responsible for the presence of the compound. The results of this algae study provided interesting correlations between secondary metabolite concentrations of algae in temperate and sub-tropical environments, contrary to the observed correlations of marine sponges. An investigation into an unknown New Zealand Raspailia sponge was conducted as previous studies had suggested the presence of novel resonances. Further analysis of the specimen yielded the known clerodane raspailodane A 126 and the unexpected novel steroidal glycoside raspailoside A 135. Biological activity studies conducted on raspailoside A showed inactivity towards the mammalian cell line HL-60 and Saccharomyces cerevisiae assays.</p>

Natural Products Studies of Marine Organisms of the South Pacific

<p>This thesis describes the NMR-guided isolation and structural elucidation of one novel and several known compounds from marine organisms collected from Tonga and New Zealand. In the process of this work, 11 Tongan algal specimens were subjected to preliminary NMR-guided investigation, as the study of Tongan marine algae is poorly represented. The HMBC spectra of crude fractions generated by the first chromatographic purification of the crude extracts were analysed for perceived structural novelty, providing three specimens that warranted further investigation. Investigation of unknown algae PTN4_17G afforded substructure 76, observed in the known compound avrainvilloside, which included the rare 6-deoxy-6-aminoglucose moiety. This aminoglucose moiety has been reported from marine sources only twice in literature, both in algae specimens. An investigation of unknown brown algae PTN4_18E afforded substructure 83, a methacrylic acid containing moiety. Methacrylic acid moieties are also uncommon in marine organisms, with 27 reported structures containing the moiety, of which only two occur from algae. In each case suitable, mass spectrometry data was not obtainable therefore full structural elucidation of the compounds was not achieved. Further analysis of the unknown algae PTN3_38C afforded the known compound fistularin-3 86, although further studies revealed that a sponge contaminant was responsible for the presence of the compound. The results of this algae study provided interesting correlations between secondary metabolite concentrations of algae in temperate and sub-tropical environments, contrary to the observed correlations of marine sponges. An investigation into an unknown New Zealand Raspailia sponge was conducted as previous studies had suggested the presence of novel resonances. Further analysis of the specimen yielded the known clerodane raspailodane A 126 and the unexpected novel steroidal glycoside raspailoside A 135. Biological activity studies conducted on raspailoside A showed inactivity towards the mammalian cell line HL-60 and Saccharomyces cerevisiae assays.</p>